Sustainable Squares
Have a look at our project
A Sustainable Future for Mannheim
With climate change accelerating, cities around the world are facing increasingly severe heat-related challenges. Urban Heat Islands emerge when cities are built at high density with little green spaces, causing heat to accumulate with nowhere to dissipate. While this affects everyone, it poses a particular risk to vulnerable populations such as the elderly, children, and the chronically ill, while the financially disadvantaged often lack the means to escape or mitigate its effects. Prolonged heat exposure can cause sleep deprivation, elevated stress levels, and a heightened risk of cardiovascular complications.
To address these challenges, we propose combining several complementary cooling strategies within a single street canyon. Solar sails span across building rooftops, reducing incoming solar radiation and limiting heat buildup throughout the day. At night, the sails retract to allow stored heat to escape into the cooler air. Flexible solar panels mounted on top of these sails make productive use of this otherwise unused surface area. Rather than conventional asphalt, the ground is paved with a mycelium-based material that absorbs significantly less thermal energy, preventing the heat retention that typically slows nighttime cooling. Finally, vertical greens along building facades maximize the use of limited urban space to provide additional cooling through evapotranspiration.
